Episodes

This week Jim was in Boston and paid a visit to The Christian Science Monitor, one of 33 Sticks’ clients. As part of the visit he and Jason were able to get time with Todd Schauman to record a podcast episode. Todd is the Director of Marketing and Analytics for the Christian Science Monitor and has a great deal of experience working in the publishing space. One of the things that Jim and Jenn have talked about on a previous episode was that there are many tried and true best practices when...

When it comes to implementing analytics tracking, some feel the need or design to tag everything a visitor can click on. While there may be value tracking most of the interactions a visitor can make, there is a core set that can be lost in the mix if not careful. What are the most important interactions on a site to have tagged first to ensure you’re clearly tracking the important details a customer is trying to tell you? This week Jenn and Jim dig into the weeds and talk about those...

You’ve just started a new job as the Analytics/Insights manager. You’re coming into a position where an analytics solution was designed and implemented by one of your predecessors. What are the critical first steps that you take now that you own it? This week, Jim, Jon, and Jason sit down to discuss what they see as the important items to tackle first along with the common missteps with this kind of scenario.
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Adobe recently announced the end of life plans and sunset date for DTM. With migrations from DTM to Launch estimated to take up to 9 months it means that if many organizations are not talking about migrating they could already behind the 8 ball. The time between now and DTM’s sunset date will fly by. What should organizations do to get things started? What are the most important things to consider?
This week Jason, Jenn, and Jim are joined by special guest Corey Spencer. Corey is Director...

Technology addiction is a very real thing. With the latest iOS version, Apple has released a feature called “Screen Time” to measure how much you use your phone and to give you the ability to shut down applications after a certain amount of usage per day as well as at night. During a recent vacation, Jim noticed a large number of people being sucked into their phones and taken out of the moment. For those of us who have a passion for technology and have a career in technology, there is a...

We’ve all been there. A prospect or client is excited to get started with something, you take all of steps necessary to get everything prepared and then…bam…things stop dead. How do you handle handle these “hurry up and wait” situations? What is the root cause of them? This week Jim, Jon, and Jason dig deep into these questions, but first talk a little bit about coffee. Jim and Jason actually find something to disagree about.
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Once a testing and optimization program is up and running, what are the key components of making it successful? What needs to be done to ensure that it’s advancing and becoming more sophisticated? Last week, Jason, Hila, and Jim spoke about the important steps to take when starting a testing and optimization program. This week they continue the conversation but focusing the common pitfalls that can cause a test program to become stagnant or even fail.
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This week, Jim and Jason are joined by Hila Dahan, 33 Sticks co-founder and testing & optimization extraordinaire, We’ve heard time and time again from clients and prospects alike how they want to get a testing program started or they’ve attempted in the past and have failed to get it off the ground. They’re super excited about the prospects of what it can do so they’re focused on the sexy things they can do when it’s up and running once it’s up and running however, they’re not focused on...

We ran into some technical issues recording this week’s episode so it’s shorter than a normal episode but chock full of good content, which is ironic given the subject. If you’re the type of person that like to go above and beyond for your clients, the thought of “less is more” may be a paradox. How could doing less actually be better for both a client and your organization? This week, Jim, Jenn, and Jason dissect this concept and discuss what it means to them and how they feel it enables...

When you work in services, there will be times you start a new project and the person you are set to work with day to day is not nearly engaged as you would like them to be or need them to be. What do you do in these situations? Is this kind of situation a symptom of something much bigger? This week, Jason, Jenn, and Jim talk through their past experiences when this has happened to them, the steps that they took, and the lessons learned.
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Can you only make an impact an organization when you work for a small company? Can those that work for large organizations have an impact? Do you make an impact by what you do internally or by what you do externally? This week Jason, Jon, and Jim tackle the concept of having an impact on the organization you work for and the many facets of it. Also, you’ll also hear what Legos have to do with digital analytics.
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This week, Jim, Jon, and Jason dig into one of Jason’s favorite topic - agency billing models. Traditionally, agencies and consulting firms bill by the hour. Every minute an employee spends working with a client needs to billed to them. Employees are also pressured to make sure they maintain a high rate of billable time each week. What are the problems that can arise from this? Are there other ways to run an agency or consultancy? What are the pros and cons of other models?
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This week Jim, Jenn, and Jason sit down and chat with Adam Woodhouse, Senior Ecommerce Insights Manager at Dixons Carphone. They discuss the typical challenges faced by Adam on a day to day basis, how the organization uses data that is collected, and what it’s like to work with a consulting team that is based on another continent.
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What does air quality have to do with data and collaboration? This week Randy Zwitch, Senior Developer Advocate at MapD, joins Jason and Jim. Randy and Jason have been working together on a project using MapD’s platform and air quality data from Jason’s home state, Utah. The conversation starts off talking about the specifics of the project but then moves onto the broader topic of remote collaboration and there is even mention of a spicy sushi challenge from 7 years ago.
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Having more data available is always good and you can never have enough, right? What could go wrong with having many sources of data? This week Jim, Jason, and Jon tackle the paradox of having too much data and what leads to it. Often times we see organizations that are struggling to understand exactly what to track so they become stuck in a cycle of implementing one tool after another thinking the technology itself will solve the problem. Without investing in the right people, they end up...

This week Jim, Jon, and Jason discuss two different, yet related problems faced by remote workers today. The first is the concept of being “always on”. The expectation, explicitly stated or implied, that you’re always accessible via phone, or email, or a messaging platform such as Slack. The second piece is distractions. This could be the latest email that comes into your inbox, the tweet you just got, or the alert that just popped up on your phone. Both of these take discipline to manage to...

Remote workers often feel the need to take extra steps to prevent exposing they are not in a corporate office, unlike their counterparts who are in a corporate office. The most common example of this is background noise during a call. Remote workers often take every precaution to prevent anything being heard in the background while those in an office don’t notice how noisy it sounds on the other end. At the root of this is a need for the remote worker for their professionalism and ability to...

Please Note: We ran into some technical difficulties recording this week’s episode so the sound quality suffered at times, but the content was great and wanted to make sure we still shared it.
This week Jason and Jim are joined by Jenn Kunz, Principal Architect and implementation extraordinaire, to discuss the finer points of designing solutions. Components such as wiring up a tag or building a feed are only a part of the entire solution. The ability to keep a view of the bigger picture,...

There is a growing desire across many industries for flexible working terms. What does it mean to work in a flexible work environment? What are some of the common pitfalls when moving from a rigid to flexible work arrangement? This week, Jim, Jon, and Jason tackle the topic of flexibility and work. With each having spent time in very rigid organizations that dictated everything from where, when, and how work will be done, there was desire to seek out or create the opposite type of...

Growing up and early in our careers many of us were taught to seek out employment with a large company or in government in order to have a safe and secure job; job security should be our number one priority. Do job security and stability really exist? Is there greater risk in avoiding what appears to be risk in the pursuit of stability and security? What are those risks? Having spent time working for large corporations in a “safe” job, Jon, Jason, and Jim talk about the lessons they have...